Winston Charles and the Eastern Kingdoms
by Hollis V. Saxon
Summary: Suddenly caught up in a undead invasion in his home world, Winston and a band of prisoners must serve under the Banshee Queen if they want to return home alive.
1. Prologue

"_Jaeques," his mistress called temptingly._

_The flow of undead slithered by unheard outside._

"_Jaeques Sabtuer, where are you?" she called again._

_The undead stopped at her doorstep. They found an unopened letter on her porch. Thinking of a way to trick what they thought was an exceptional hunter, they had the most recently turned, at least one that hadn't shown much sign of death yet, a elderly black man, answer the door to deliver the message._

_Knock, knock. She answered the door. With the group unseen, the man held out the letter to the woman. "I believe this belongs to you," he said._

_Her face softened, as if seeing a familiar person. "Jaeques! Quit playing games with me!" she told him, dragging him inside. Without another thought, she closed the door and placed the letter aside. Pressing up against the man, the woman decided to bare her skin. The undead man stalled for time, and after a moment, the rest of the group burst into the house. "Jaeques?" she asked, confused._

"_Formerly," the man told her, and gave her the letter again. With a bit of hesitance, she opened and read the Notice of Death, which upon finishing, fainted._

_

* * *

_

I remember the scene of the last moment I was really alive day in and day out, before I was brought before my new master, Banshee Queen Sylvanas Windrunner, and fully turned into a member of the undead. Unlike Hollywood's movies, it was a pleasant life for me, despite my hand in others' blood, experimenting on them as an undead doctor in the Royal Apothecary Society, as well as a warlock in the service of her majesty. Eventually, I was renamed as Jaeques Mist-Killer, or Mytklr for short.

After nearly fifty-odd years in her service, I met the rouge blood elf Ashlian Menethil, who, despite her traitorous actions, had assisted in defeating both Kael'Thas Sunstrider and, after being engaged and took his last name, Arthras Menethil, the Lich King.

Despite these actions of heroics, she had the Death sentence on her head, and had she not been revered in most of the factions in the opposing Alliance, she would have died. But outsiders to our world interfered, and they passively forced the Horde to make a Treaty of Peace with the Alliance, and Ashlian was spared. However, Ash found that she could no longer live in the magic ridden region of her homeland, and could not be fully admitted back into service under Regent Lord Lor'Themar Theron, and therefore was put under the Banshee Queen's service, as did one of the outsiders named Saikun Volker Saxon, or as we called him now, Sai.


	2. Chapter 1: Special Delivery

"Jaeques," Lady Windrunner repeated over the WCD. "You are to put my requests first, especially over you're Mundane job."

"Yes, milady. I will be there shortly," I told her, closing the WCD. Attempting to put it in my robe pocket, I dropped it on the ground. Why doesn't Sai just give these people his "personal tech" so they don't have to rely on these blocks of trouble?

"Hey, let me get that for you," a passing teen offered. At least the people became much more helpful when their new president, Joan Gottswald, was elected and implemented many beneficial things, like a much smaller budget and more intelligent people in charge.

At least that's how Sai saw it.

"Thank you, son," I said. Making sure I coughed at least once after saying that, hiding the undead inflection in my voice, I received the WCD back from the young man. Nodding awkwardly, the young man resumed his trek somewhere.

My mundane job? Delivery and paperboy. I do it during the late evening and early morning to hide my self being and save public sanity. But this was an 'emergency delivery'. I had to deliver a bucket of strawberry ice-cream to a vendor who was almost out. I hoped I got paid extra.

Resuming my midday trek from my brief break, I got into the car that Sai kept to get around, since our mounts and the rugged bike Ash had made was a bit odd, and drove off.

Arriving in less than ten minutes to the vendor, I put on the Konig Delivery Service gear and the old human costume Sai made, who was truly a wonderful friend and resource if you haven't guessed by now, and entered through the back. After handing the Ice-cream over, a new person took the clerk shift to handle the slowly growing line. He looked at me for a moment with a strange look on his face for a moment, passing by, but simply turned around and greeted the next customer.

I headed back to the car, but the car's keys slipped out of my pocket and hit the ground. Sighing, I reached down and grabbed the keys. Once I had hold of the keys though, a group of bikers, denim-wearing leather-clad big men with a vest that displayed a emblem of a purple flaming skull, grabbed my shoulder and spun me around.

For some odd or no reason at all, he pushed me up against the car and punched me. Not intended for combat, Sai's costume tore and it was fairly obvious that they didn't expect it. The man paused.

A lucky passerby noticed us, and proceeded to run around screaming "Zombie!" at the top of their lungs. Others noticed and did practically the same, only instead of just losing their sanity, they even tried to harm me.

That's when I realized there was one option: to kill. I only needed to speak three words: "Jorgen, Mokubeix." Jorgen, a felguard or demon warrior, and Mokubeix, a felhunter or mage slaying hellhound, appeared before me. "Kill."

"As you wish, master," they said in unison. Sometimes, slaughter is the only option, and in cases like this where there is no way to redeem yourself from being a random-encounter enemy, provides the best and possibly worst conclusion.

But I didn't have a problem with it. Mokubeix quickly vanished and materialized with more felhunters, and soon, I could move around again. I quietly snuck into a side building, while the people outside were not having the best of days.

* * *

"And which kind of ice-cream would you like, young man?" the clerk asked.

"Cherry, please," Cressord-kun asked.

"Waffle cone or cup?"

"Cup."

Turning toward me, expectedly, he asked, "how about you, young miss?"

"Strawberry cup, please," I asked. I instantly thought of three responses for him.

However…

He looked taken aback. Then prepared our treats. Cressord also had noticed. Without a word, he handed our treats over and Cress paid the fee.

"Have a nice afternoon," Cress said politely.

"Yeah," the clerk simply said.

Walking out of the store, I noticed markings on Cress' face, next to his right eye. It appeared to be a box with the bottom half sectioned off and cut in half.

Lick. Cress licked my forehead. "Oh, right. You're not ice-cream," he joked. I chuckled. "As for this," he said, indicating the marking, "don't worry about it."

"Fine," I said, munching the last of the ice-cream. We walked about two or three steps when the people around us began panicking.

"Zombies!" some were shouting. Cress grabbed a passing person and told them to get people inside. They nodded and when Cress let go, they ran for a bit and relayed Cress' message to others.

"Come on," Cress said, grabbing me and half dragged me into a building. A hotel. A fukking hotel.

"Hey! Perv!" I yelled at him, flustered.

"You're worried about that?" he said. Suddenly we were all alone.

Not noticing, I continued to yell at him. "You don't know what a girl cares about more!"

He stopped. I thought he was going to turn around and yell at me. He turned around, alright, but instead of yelling, he touched the mark. It shifted, moved under his left eye, and changed shape. It still had the box outline, but the center three lines moved upward, making a upside down triangle split through the middle.

I blinked, but still.

"And? What did that d-" Cress had turned into a girl. Long red hair and blazing red eyes replaced the dusty-black eyes and short hair. Still slim with a somewhat desirable flat-chest. Dark colored shoes and knee-high socks complimented her new orangish yellow vest and black undershirt and skirt, and made her territory so… so…


	3. Chapter 2: Hotel Somewhere

"Lady Sylvanas! The felhounds are rampaging!" "We can't call them back!" "Lady Windrunner!" The warlocks were panicking. Eventually, this is going to tie back to one single individual. "Lady Wi-!"

"SILENCE!" I called. The panicked undead froze, and slowly formed ranks in front of me. "DO any of you know where they're going to?"

"I believe the Other World, ma'am." I can't believe this. There was really only one way I'm going to fix this to Warchief Garrosh's appeasement once it reaches him.

"Round up a turning party, and bring extra soldiers. Claim the building Jaeques is in last, provided that he's alive. If he is, bring him here, but don't stop turning until I've commanded so," I ordered. This was going to be at least halfway interesting, but only halfway since I can't leave until I've got the okay from His Brutalness.

The warlocks went about to build up both a suitable squad and get prepared for this accidental invasion.

Without a real thing to do, I started to dial Jaeques' contact code until I realized that if I did, I couldn't punish him until he got back and he'd just label it as "yet another lecture".

Where was the other two? Where was Sai and where was my Second-Champion Ash? I hope that I didn't need them.

* * *

I must have been one of those lucky fellows who die without dying and go to heaven, entering the building because there was no obstructions between me and the two girls wrestling on the floor, one trying to undress the other.

I instantly had my cell on silence and snapped a pic of them, silently and sent it to my pals god know where. I silenced my cell and went into video mode. Finding a place for my phone to where I believed it would get most of the action, I placed it there and pressed record. I moved to a place near the doors where I could get a good view, and although I didn't get involved, I got enough that my friends would've almost murdered to be me.

Mere seconds later, the younger of the two, a dark-haired gothic loli, had removed the older red-head's shirt and was trying to get her own undone, while the red-head was slowly moving away. But the moment the young girl's shirt and skirt came off, she recaptured the older girl and continued to strip her.

And it just got better from there, until I unknowingly fell asleep.

As I awoke from such a good nap, three things clicked in my head and made me leap and run like hell.

First, the girls had left, and had discovered me sleeping, so they had given me a key to a room. That's when I realized this is a hotel. I guess I was too distracted.

Second, and out of all the most important to me, the phone that captured the action. I picked it up and found, within three seconds, that it wasn't discovered by the two, but was also out of battery. It died in my hands, still capturing video.

The third was the undead and demons. Which upon remembering said thought, I ran for the stairs to the floor the room the key was supposed to go to was on, which was #603. I never appreciated Gym class more in my entire life.

Upon stepping on the second floor landing, I heard the first zombie to crash through the glass of the doors to the hotel. Third floor, fourth, fifth, Sixth! Upon reaching the sixth floor I needed a breather, which then a noise noted that they had started on the second floor.

Walking now, I came across the two girls from earlier, dozing in each other's arms, mostly dressed. And guess what, my room was right there. I opened the door and dragged the older of the two, and with great effort, lifted her onto the far bed. Taking a quick break, I wondered what then. Once I got the girls into the room, what was I going to do? I doubt if I did something bad to them now I'd be punished as an undead, but they were so beautiful…

NO. I shook that thought away before I fully convinced myself. Granted I've only cared for that stuff on occasion, using their sleep to my advantage in that particular fashion would make me a criminal, even if I didn't live.

I walked back to the young girl, taking one more look at the older girl. If it were a different situation, we could have… Damn it. I am not going to say that stupid line because I am not going down, ever. I'd die before… damn it!

Turning back to the girl, I found a man wearing robes that were, no matter how you look at or explain it, Occultist or Warlock regalia. Mainly purple with green runes at the trim, he was completely covered except his hands, which was mutilated to the bone.

"Umm… Could I…?" I said, trying to talk.

"Sure, you need help?" he said, in a gruff, deep voice. I couldn't speak. If you weren't counting the cult of Twilight and Sparkly Vamps, he defined every stereotype of Occultist besides KOS (Kill on Sight for those who aren't aware). Right there was .the best example of an Awkward Silences, so much so, it was tipped with a dose of fear.

"Y-yeah," I squeaked out, trembling with fear.

"I look like a villain?" he asked, half rhetorically, before motioning me to lift her up. No. Fricking. Duh.

"Very much, sir," I said automatically. "Almost like an Occultist or a Warlock." I really can't shut up when I'm scared. I lifted her body, and the man supported her head.

"Two floors," the man said suddenly.

"Two Flo-" A loud crash from the fourth floor reminded me of the threat of Zombies. "Right.:" Placing the girl on the redhead but away from the edge, I sat on the other bed and relaxed. Closing the door, the man walked to my side.

"Boy, you're right about me partially. I'm a Warlock, but I don't want these monsters taking everything they could, so could you turn around and take off your shirt so I could apply the Anti-Zombiefication seal to your back?" the man asked.

Like I was spring-loaded, I bounced from my sitting position to standing against the wall. "What?"

"Please allow me to put an anti-Zombiefication seal-"

"I know that, but… why would you not support the undead more?"

"Because they don't need everything they can get. Lets put this in another situation: If I sit by and let this happen, then what would I be left with? A lot of cadavers and a poorly lit basement," He told me.

"Right," I said. But I wasn't going to trust this guy entirely just yet. "But if you want to apply it on me, I want you to put it on them first. By the way, what is your name?"

The man paused, looking down, pondering the situation. After a moment, he looked back at me. "Jaeques, Jaeques Mytklr. What's yours, boy?" Jaeques said, moving toward the two girls.

"Winston. Winston Charles," I said, despite it not being my real name. Hell, I'd even love to have that as my real name.

I adverted my eyes as he lifted the younger girl and took off her shirt. My phone was dead, and I had left the charger at home, obviously not knowing this was happening. I looked back at what Jaeques was doing, and he had just started on the older girl. Without a job to do, I sat down on the first bed again.

Soon, Jaeques shifted on the bed. "Your turn, Winston."

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered, taking off my shirt. I felt the man's cold fingers as they applied the seal that would apparently save me from Zombiefication.

Suddenly, I had a chilling thought. "Umm… Jaeques. How are you going to save yourself? Teach me the seal and have me apply it to you?" I asked.

No response. He muttered the chant under his breath, though I could barely hear him at all through the noise from the floor below.

Crash. Scream. Bang. Silence. It was like a murder. Except it was a pandemic. A zombie apocalypse. Except combined with military-like style. A zombie military if you will.

Funny how stuff in Hollywood is only made for money, smiles and cheer. Man, Reality really sucks.

* * *

"My Dark Mistress, it seems that you have struck a gold mine of new recruits for the Horde," Warchief Garrosh Hellscream noted, as nearly half the theatre was crowded with fresh undead, half-ignoring my presence.

"Yes, thanks to an advance scout that may have made it back already," Lady Sylvanas told him. "Maybe he's gone back to help secure the front lines."

"If I may interrupt," an Apothecarian said, loaded with supplies for a portable lab. "Shall I send the okay to finish up on the Other side?"

"Are you trying to make a joke?" Lady Sylvanas asked. "Do I really need to tell you everything? Of course you can finish up on your side."

"Yes, my Lady," the Apothecarian said, before scurrying away with his lab supplies.

"May I ask how you are conducting this invasion?" the Warchief asked.

"We are turning them on their side so there is little delay before they're turning their own."

"Do you need some of my troops?" Warchief Hellscream asked. It was not a yes/no question.

"In the future, but they can be prepared now."

"Before we send some troops onto the undead front, we also need to _check_ some of your _equipment_. So if you don't mind…"

The Dark lady, obviously displeased, bit her tongue for the sake of possible rest. Even if she didn't like it, the Strength of the Orcs was still superior to the strength of the Forsaken, and she still needed their support.

"Sai, you are not needed for this. Locate Ashlian and occupy yourselves for a time," the Dark Lady told me. Finally, some relaxation time. I stretched my wings and flew off in search of the Lady Ash. Things are getting somewhat repetitive.


	4. Chapter 3: Capture and Turn

Winston Charles and The Eastern Kingdoms

Part Three

He was a Zombie. The young girl wasn't entirely human. And I really didn't want to know what the older girl was. Was I the only human that was going to survive?

Let me start over.

After Jaeques finished the seal, the younger of the two girls woke up and saw Jaeques and tried hide both her and the girl ineffectively under the bed sheet. Jaeques let them be. When the older one woke, the younger one whispered to her and both stayed put.

The undead invaders, however, did not stop. They took the floor below us quickly and started on this floor, but stopped in the middle and took to the higher floors. Which took them little time at all, and in fact they were back down here in less than an hour.

_Knock knock. _Someone knocked on the doors, and said this: "This is your captors. Please exit the room voluntarily and we will not harm you immediately. If we have to break down the door, we will turn you all. Also, we have a message to the Warlock with you. You have three minutes to comply. Thank you and have a nice day."

'Thank you and have a nice day'? Really?

The girls, left with no other options, decided to come out from hiding and follow me and Jaeques outside. Leaving nothing of ours behind, like we actually did, we stepped out into the hallway, which had been widened significantly, and sat down in a line. Jaeques, had been obviously separated from our company.

It's about then I got a good look at our invaders. The soldiers were shorter than the adults they had captured, but wore rather old gear. Dusty leather battle tunics and helms. Worn down swords or axes with rotten wood shields. Despite being undead, they looked just as composed and relaxed as human soldiers.

There was one undead that stood out from the group though. They looked to be another Warlock. They were wearing a blue and gold version of Jaeques robe, but instead of the large, demonic runes on Jaeques, they were thin, practiced, modest, and weren't as prominent as Jaeques'. And unlike Jaeques, who had his entire face and some shadowed with his hood, this one hid their face with a mask that was a combination of hay and rusted metal. Mostly rotten hay, though. They were also holding two staves, one covered in some kind of black tar.

"Brother, you let me down," they said, obviously female.

"Don't call me that." The two of them talked for some time, talking about this and that, when the woman brought up possible punishments from the Dark Lady.

"From Lady Windrunner? I'm not part of the Scourge."

"So you didn't leave the Forsaken?"

"No, I just had to make a delivery and then head over to the UC and do what the Lady wanted me for." From there on it became harder to understand, so I stopped listening. Some time later, the younger girl dozed off and the older one, which for now I shall call Orange, prodded me.

"What?" I whispered.

"Smell that?" she asked. I sniffed the air. Nothing.

"Smell what?" I asked back. She looked at me like I missed something.

"What does the dead smell like?" she hinted.

"Like death? Decomposing flesh, a corroding stench- Oh." It occurred to me. When you go see a movie, most actors don't notice a zombie until it's upon them. It seems that they smell bad since its portrayed like that, but these guys are the same but… they smell like air, not the sickening horror.

"Oh what?" the woman asked, turning toward me. If I wasn't mistaken, when I looked at her, she had red glowing eyes seeping through her mask. "Do you have something to say, young ma-" _Ding!_

Someone's cell went off. Luckily for me, she paused and turned toward the sound. Jaeques, freed from the woman's chatter, walked over to the source and plucked the phone from the girl's hands. "Hey!" she said, instinctively rising and quickly retreated.

"Sai has one of these," he mumbled, and after a moment, turned toward me. "Winston, can I see your WCD?"

"It's called a cell phone," the girl told him.

"Yeah, you can borrow my WCD, but it's dead," I said, ignoring her. Then I caught myself. "Err, it's out of battery." I stood and walked over to Jaeques, the soldiers tensing up. After handing it to him, I walked back and sat down.

"Whose this 'Sai'," the female undead asked, irritated.

"None of your needed information," he replied.

Clearly irritated, she turned toward my direction and walked over, but instead of focusing on me, she turned toward Orange. "What is your name, girl?"

"Cressord," she said hesitantly.

"Cressord… Cress, turn around, put your head down," the woman instructed. Cress complied. For the record, I asked her what was her name. "Sydonia," she told me and beckoned one of the guards, whispered instructions to him and he moved off, told some other guards and began picking people at random.

They group of random people were loaded onto one of the elevators and escorted down. 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1. It should have been obvious by then. They were turning us, not exactly killing us off. The screams from every floor below before and the new screams now came as no surprise. So why wasn't I scared? Was I enjoying this?

When the group came back, there were no humans to speak of. The new guards could be told apart from the old because they only were razed with the actual zombie look, still retaining some of their skin color, despite patches of the undead's greenish gray. What surprised me more was a hairbrush and bag of hair bands one of them was holding. Umm… what the hell?

I prodded the younger of the two awake and was about to asked and tell her some things, but when she opened her eyes and saw the people leaving she stood and walked with them. I reached out to grab her but she moved too fast and was out of my reach in a moment.

The guards handed the bag and brush to Sydonia and stepped back into line.

I watched wide-eyed slack-jawed as the young girl entered the elevator and the elevator doors closed. I couldn't believe that I just sent someone to their death.

* * *

The messenger waited until the last of the orcs exited the room and were out of earshot. "We have captured the Warlock Jaeques amongst the humans on the Otherside. We have determined it should be less than half a day before they arrive on this side. Do you want me to alert the town of Brill to prepare to receive him?"

"Yes. No one but the guard is to assist him until he is secured, and if they want to 'assist' him it is to escort him here. Is there anything else you would like to say?"

"No. Only that Apothecarian Warlock Sydonia is leading the capture and she has taken Lesser Apothecaries Cyondine and Kleptica with her for turning."

"Ok." And with that, the messenger left the Dark Lady's presence to the town of Brill.


	5. Chapter 4: Was weiss du?

**I'm sorry that I haven't updated in forever. I have no excuses so I'm just going to resume the story.**

* * *

Weiß and the Eastern Kingdoms

I slowly awoke to someone nudging me, saying something or another. Dizzy, I saw people exiting the hallway, and stood to leave too. The rescuers were here, someone helping us to escape the undead.

The people crowded into an elevator, protected by guards. I sighed in relief as the elevator doors closed behind me. I turned to look at how the guards were doing, satisfied that they looked a bit rotten.

Wait.

I turned back to the guard to see that they weren't the army or military I was thinking I was with. The guards were even stronger looking undead than what had captured us. Before I could react, the elevator doors opened to reveal a very different setting.

The lobby we had passed through had been converted into a mock mad scientist lab. Random chemistry tubes were set up every where, mass producing the same greenish gray substance. Four or five abominations roaming around the room, either twisting this and tweaking that, or trying to find something to pound. In the middle of the room, two of the zombies were dressed up as scientists, issuing orders to the abominations and each other.

The guards had to force everyone out roughly. However, once the last person was clear of the elevator, the guards closed the doors casually. Two abominations hurried to the group and had little problems moving us toward the scientists, who had turned to greet us.

Despite neither looking fresh, they moved and looked as if it were Saturday, wearing slight green lab coats and tan shirts and slacks, only the coats looked recently made. Unlike the other undead though, they had dyed their hair; the male appearing one had whitish blue hair and the female had dyed it cotton candy pink.

Turning back to her desk, the pink haired zombie grabbed a vial of the substance and turned back to her partner. "I need more of the potion, Cyon," she said.

Cyon turned and took the vial, which was half full. "How much are you using?" Cyon asked. He turned toward the crowd and looked it over. He then pointed at a young girl, who looked barely ten and had blonde hair. "You, come here."

The young girl moved to his side, shaking noticeably. The pink haired zombie took out a clipboard, ready to take notes. "Just a sip," Cyon instructed, handing the girl the beaker. Nervously, the girl raised the beaker and took a sip, as instructed, and handed it back to him.

Once the beaker left her fingertips, she dropped to the ground and writhed in pain for over a minute. I took a few steps to go to her, but one of the abominations caught my arm to stop me. I tried to reach for her and break the abomination's grasp, finding she was just beyond reach, when she stopped moving. I turned around and punched the abomination in its ugly mug, loosening its grip and faced towards the girl who had been lying on the ground a moment ago.

Now she was looking up at me with adorable eyes that didn't seem real. Her appearance didn't changed, only that she looked more like a wax doll with teddy bear eyes.. "Don't be a bad girl," she said as if I were a puppy she loved. She giggled and smiled, then twisted me around like rope until she decided to put me on my knees with my chest up in the air. Needless to say I couldn't break free.

"Scrap metal, please," the girl said to one of the abominations, who gave her quite a large piece. Despite the fact it was metal, she bent and molded it deftly around my wrists and ankles, forming crude hand braces.

During this time, the undead scientists turned the prisoners into undead, each looking more sickenly unreal than the last. When it came my turn, the pink haired zombie took a vial and filled it with the potion and walked leisurely to me, and instead of forcing it down my throat just yet, she turned toward my capturer and handed the vial to her.

"Whenever you want," she said, winking to the young girl, and turned away. The young girl however, turned toward me with a smile that hinted of insanity.

"Before you do anything," I hastily said, the young girl approaching eerily slowly. "What are you called?"

"Mistress," she said. She lunged at me and picked me up and carried me shortly down a hallway, entering one of the rooms and dropping me on the bed. Quickly departing the room and reentering it, she brought in a few boxes of nails but no hammer. Placing the boxes on the table beside me, she opened one of the boxes and removed a nail. She then unbound one of my hands and secured it against the wall. Placing the nail over one of my fingers, she grabbed my head and slammed it repeatedly against the nail, hammering it through my finger and into the wall.

After that, she let go of my aching head, which I rested on the pillow. But only for a few seconds. She grabbed a second nail from the open box and repeated the process for the next finger segment. After that was done, she repeated the process for what seemed like the rest of the day.

Winston

In the lull of time, Sydonia had removed her mask and lowered her hood, revealing that she is a beauty even in death, and was currently cleaning up Cress' hair brushing it into a ponytail. Jaeques had taken to reading a book called _The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi_, which he had taken from a girl in the crowd, who was sketching someone in a business suit wearing a robber mask.

The guard had grown lax, except when new guards arrived, looking like porcelain dolls. They let us openly converse and pretty much do anything except leave when it wasn't time for people to go. I stayed at Cress' side and held her cooling hands, waiting for a miracle to happen.

Sydonia finally grabbed for the bag of hair bands, and wrestled three hair bands to contain just the back of the head. She left some out of the bands to frame her face, but the hair was long and full enough in front to reach down to her chest and still look like she had more coming. However, Sydonia had made Cress' wild beach-sand colored hair look tamed, and Cress was beautiful. At least until…

"Stiletto," Sydonia commanded, and a guard handed her his dagger. It wasn't a stiletto, though I don't think Sydonia cared. "Winston, right? Hold this left band up," she told me, and I obeyed, letting go of Cress' hands and lifting the ponytail up. Holding Cress' head still, Sydonia sawed off the pony tail with the dagger.

She sawed off the ponytail. I lifted the other ponytails, stunned from the twist of actions. I could see goosebumps rising on Cress' arm, and I felt bad about what I was doing. Sydonia picked up the three chunks of hair and walked away, finding a trash can to throw them away.

I leaned in and took Cress' hands again. "I'm sorry. Tell me how to make this up to you and I will do it," I assured her.

"I know you will, Winston. Please stay by my side for now, and do your best not to leave it," she said sadly. All that was left of the hair on the back of her head was like a thin layer of wool; it will keep the owner comfortable but not warm.

Weiß

I couldn't feel my hand anymore. It was cover in nickel residue from the nails, as well as blood. I'm surprised that my head hasn't caved in from the smashing.

The girl had left to get more nails to pound into my body, as the other boxes had run out. The nails trailed from my fingertips to my wrist and a fourth of the way down my arm. If I could feel anything of my old limb, it would fall off had it not been nails.

Please, god or deity watching over me, lend me your help. I tried to see if I could reach the phone, only to come up short again. I tried again, when I felt something distant. I stopped reaching for the phone and concentrated on that something, what ever it is. My last life line, probably.

"What are you doing?" I turned in horror as the young girl appeared in the door way with a crowbar, screws instead of nails, and a container of salt. No pun intended, but I felt like I was screwed. The girl hurried to my side while I focused and focused on my last life line so far away.

Come on damn it! I willed the object closer and closer more and more, until I couldn't handle it any more. I turned to see the crowbar descend in a high arc. Breaking the binds panicking, I raised my good arm to defend myself from the crowbar when a giant metal object materialized on it, effortlessly causing the crowbar to weakly bounce off it. I lowered and looked at the metal object.

It appeared to be a sword of some sort built on a bulky metal boxing glove, and instead of being heavier than what I expected it to be, it was lighter than a pillow.

"Bitch! Why don't you fukking die!" the once innocent girl yelled at me, readying another swing. However, the advantage had changed dramatically.

I waited until the girl was in arms length before I struck so I could retrieve the crowbar. The sword went through her like she wasn't even there. However, her undead state became apparent as the half of her that was connected to her head still came after me, the smile didn't even look friendly anymore. Fortunately, the buster weapon was light enough to strike again and accurately, and this time the corpse didn't resume its approach.

The buster dematerialized, its purpose fulfilled, allowing me to take the crowbar and remove the bindings still on my legs. However, I had two more obstacles before I could escape and rescue Cress and the boy.

One, obviously was the nails that attached me to the walls. The second one was the pink haired zombie scientist that heard our bout and had come running. She placed the vial on the table with the empty nail boxes and extracted the crowbar from my sore self and traded the vial for it.

Lifting my head up, the scientist poured the potion down my throat. It caused me to throw up, depositing the remains of the strawberry ice-cream that Cress had treated me to. Disgusted, she forced the rest into me. For a moment, I felt nothing but the sheer terror as I recalled what had happened to the girl that was in pieces, scattered around the room. The scientist stepped back and took out the clipboard that she hid in her coat.

Slowly, the potion came into effect, at first a slight stinging in my stomach, then a burn in my throat, and progressively my body felt more pain than it had places to hurt. I looked at my hand that was nailed to the wall one last time. The trickle of blood grew until it was a small red river trailing down the wall.

My sight started to spasm, then my hands couldn't hold me up, and following that I smelled something foul burning. My heart accelerated, my skin began to crawl and warp, tearing the lean fat and muscle from its place on bone. I started to breathe heavily and quickly. Tears welled up and flowed like my blood was.

I looked back at the scientist, my sight blurring and failing. "Help…" I said, wishing desperately.

She chuckled, stood and ran out of the room, calling for Cyon. When they returned, I hacked them to bits with the buster before succumbing to the potion.


	6. Filler: Christmas Part 1

**Didn't have time typing the main story out so I made this. Next time it'll be the actual story. Sorry for the inconvenience.**

* * *

**Special / Filler**

Winston Charles and The Eastern Kingdoms

"Winston! Winston! Wake up!" Cress said as she shook me awake. "You know what day it is, don't you?"

"Ugh…" I moaned. The sun had barely risen above the horizon, angling all of its beams through the window into my eye like it wanted me also awake. Raising my arm to block the beaming light, I rose from the bed and rubbed my eyes, ridding it of its salty warm tears that kept it closed.

Cress was sitting like a puppy ready for a day of play, which she pretty much was, bouncing excitedly, waiting for my answer. "Lets see… when we got here it was late November, and we've been here nearly two-thirds of a month, so I'd have to wager it's either Christmas or its eve."

"Yep!" she said with a bounce that landed her on her feet beside the bed. "It's the eve, so let's split up and get each other gifts!" Slowly getting out of bed, I noticed we had slept in the same bed with minimal clothing and Weiß or anyone else for that matter had not been with us. But for the sake of not running into an awkward situation, I kept my mouth shut.

Suddenly fully dressed, Cress kissed my waking body and dashed off into the other room. Again, I felt something incredibly wrong with our situation but again did not comment in fear of Karmatic spite.

I got dress with the magically appearing clothes that just happened to be in the dresser and stepped out of the room. Cress had put on an apron and was making breakfast with the same excitement as a few moments earlier, never losing the sparkle in her eyes that if it disappeared would mark end of the world. Passing by Cress, I snuck a kiss and moved on, faking a smile for her sake. I sat down at the table where Jaeques, an elf I believed was the Lady Ash, and my mother and father were simply chatting away and having a laugh occasionally.

I grabbed the newspaper conveniently placed and began half reading it. The headlines were saying that the United States has agreed to allow the Undead to take over the southern border patrol for "undisclosed reasons".

Skimming through it, an undead town of Brill has "mysteriously appeared where "A town in the North" once had been the day before". The people who had been in town had either been turned or is currently missing. The government is currently "trying to make peace with the undead, as they seem to lack the "feral tendencies" of standard Hollywood undead and are very intelligent".

Very Intelligent. Lack the tendencies. Make peace with the Undead. Mysteriously appeared. Could we replace all that with "Undead has taken over the town of in the north, renamed it to the town of Brill, and we are either attempting to prevent the smart undead from expanding and/or use them to our advantage on various war projects" ?

Reality doesn't take a holiday, people.

"Winston, dear," my mother asked for my attention. Folding the newspaper, I looked at her. "Are you planning something for this afternoon?"

"Possibly. Did you want me?" I asked.

"Jaeques would like you to show him around town, since he is staying for the holiday break."

I looked at Jaeques, wondering if it was a good thing for him to be walking around with this—"Yes, I would be glad to show you around town," I told him, deliberately breaking my chain of thought.

"Thank you, young man. 'Winston', right? I never remember names correctly," he humbly admitted.

"Don't worry about it, really," I said.

"Incoming!" Cress called, walking in with breakfast. First she placed it down in front of the Lady Ash and my father, who were still chatting away, then Mother and Jaeques, who resumed chatting. Before she left to get our plates, she snuck a kiss back.

This breakfast with family and friends was maybe the best gathering I've had. The bad feeling I had disappeared, possibly realizing that I can't be bothered enough. After breakfast, I helped Cress with the dishes and put on a sweater and scarf and Jaeques had his own gear on as we headed out of the house.

I lived in a small town close to the Brill, which pretty soon was going to be like the other, and we don't get much focus since we are possibly one of the smallest towns. Besides, we like our privacy.

"You did want to tour the town, right?" I asked once we were out of earshot.

"Not exactly. You see, I've decided to join in on the holiday event you call 'Christmas' and wanted to get a gift to Ash, but if I possibly looked around here, I might find something to give to her," he said. Looking around, he clapped his hands and whistled. For a moment, nothing happened. Then I could hear a horse in the distance.

"That's a neat trick," I commented. Suddenly the ground lit up like it was cracking. Stepping away, I watched in awe as the horse emerged from the ground and paced at its master's side. The light dissipating, I could see as Jaeques got onto the saddle of the hell horse.

"I did tell you once that I was a warlock, right?" Jaeques chuckled.

"Yeah," I said, cautiously moving back to where I stood. "Yeah."

"Let's move on, before the snow arrives," Jaeques said as he patted the horse into a trot. I followed behind, feeling the chill in the air.

* * *

With the boys gone, the rest of us, with the exception of Winston's father, tidied up the house for the holiday. Besides laundry and the bedrooms, the joint efforts of me, Cress, and Mrs. Charles had cleaned up the house in less time than expected. With nearly a quarter of an hour to eleven, we were left with nothing to do inside.

With a bit of discussion on what to do next, we all headed out to get the boys their Christmas gifts. All of us, because Mrs. Charles didn't want me to stay because of the possibility I might either kill or seduce her husband and Cress came along for the near opposite reasons, that _he_ might seduce _her_.

The most unfortunate thing, though was that there was an uneven tension amongst us. I didn't doubt the men are trying their best to stay with the women they had, but Mrs. Charles doubted we'd stay with their partners if the chance arose.

"Lets talk this out," I prompted, not willing to keep this tension up.

"Your boyfriend, Ash," she said, slightly bitter, "is one of those Undead people walking around causing mischief just south of here. He might just be turned or might be dug up from the grave, but when he goes away, what are you going to do?"

"He is not my boyfriend. He's my husband, and he did not just rise from the ground a few days ago. He has been around for nearly fifty-years since he has risen and was in very good condition when I meet him. And he does not cause trouble on his behalf, but is instructed to do so when his Lady commands him to," I explained.

"Yeah, yeah. Talk all you want about him but he's still in the same boat as the rest of them when it comes down to it," she replied. "And what about you, Cress? Are you planning on staying with my son or going to ditch him when the opportunity arises?"

"…" Cress stayed quiet, oddly. She stared forward and smiled like she was ignoring us. That was good except…

"So you don't plan on staying with my son," the woman said spitefully, before facing forward. I looked at Cress again, who had fallen slightly back. However, despite the smile on her face, her eyes showed a smidge of pain and confusion. I didn't ask. Instead, my eyes caught on something else, a person following us on the rooftops, watching us.

I turned back causally, trying not to provoke them or Mrs. Charles' attention. "So, fifty-years undead," Mrs. Charles said, sighing. "I thought fifty-years alive was long enough, but he had to live fifty more dead. How old was he when he died?"

"About seventy-two. Near-ancient where we come from, yet those years didn't harm him much."

"Seventy two? He would be nearly…"

"One hundred and twenty five. 'Six if you counted his half-a-year underground."

"If he was a living man, he'd be one of the oldest men alive," she said. "Was he European, by any chance?"

"European?" I asked, confused.

"Umm…" she said, trying to figure something out.

"If you mean by skin color, he was black, but there really isn't any difference to really distinguish him from any other man other than his personality."

"Oh, in that case, was he an opportunist when he was living?"

"When he was living he wasn't a noble, so he had to take what he could. But as a hunter he mostly relied on himself when he could."

"Ok, but I was asking if he slept around."

"Well, he could survive in the lands he hunted in because he knew how to make shelter easily, so I guess so."

"No, no. that's not what I'm asking. Did he sleep with a lot of women?"

Oh. Registering that thought, I turned and clenched my fist, when Cress tripped on the rough road. If she hadn't distracted me by slipping, I would have hit this woman.

* * *

Finally making it to town, the snow had taken a detour and we just missed it. Not that I wanted to have it snow.

With Jaeques riding his ever warm horse next to me, I entered the town proper. Jaeques had hidden most of his face with a scarf and pretty much the rest with glasses, and he didn't look much out of place as a group of horse riders passed saying hello and moving on. Not many people had cars in this small grouping of towns and those who did rarely if ever used them. Then we have the tourists…

Passing by the sheriff's office and some souvenir stores, we came across a bookstore and decided to look at it. However we had to look for the stables for the horse first, but once again the moment it passed through my mind the stables appeared. The bad feeling resurfaced since I had been to this bookstore once or twice before and the stables had not been this close, but like before I dismissed the thought as paranoia.

Entering the stables, I walked up to the manager and asked for a stall.

"Would you like a specific one, son?" the man asked.

"No, just an available one would do."

"Ok, just follow me." He rose and led me to the stable doors, upon opening he spotted Jaeques and called to him. Entering, he dropped from the back of the horse and led it to the stall. Whispering to it, he walked to my side and the horse dropped to a resting position and fell asleep. "May I ask you and your horse's names?" the manager asked, pulling out a clipboard.

"Jaeques Mytklr and Brax," Jaeques said, both of us hoping his last name merely grazed his mind.

"Would you sign here for the record?" the man said, handing the board and pen to Jaeques systematically, who in turn took and scribbled and handed back the board. "Thank you, sirs."

Walking out, Jaeques chuckled after the door to the stables was shut. "He spelt my name wrong." I chuckled at that to.


	7. Chapter 5: Wo machen wir?

Winston and the Eastern Kingdoms

"Nonsense. I played down a King, therefore you can't play a One to beat it," Jaeques told the kid we were playing a card game with yet again.

"That's what the rules state. Ten beats all face cards except the Ace, Jack beats that, Queen beats Jack, King beats Queen, and Ace beats all, except two, which beats the Ace," he said in defiance. "Tell him, Winston."

"Connor's right, Jaeques," I said for the third time since we started playing. Half an hour had passed since Weiß went down the elevator and not a single turned guard had returned.

Extremely bored, Sydonia let the guards that were still here take a break. Everyone just did what they wanted except leave the floor, which was a given. Cress and a few other people were allowed back into the rooms to sleep, given that it was only to sleep. Connor, the kid we were playing cards with, invited us to a card game with a friend, who stayed quiet except for a few words at a time.

Sydonia had disappeared off somewhere, leaving the rabble of us to entertain each other.

"Winston, it's your turn," Connor said, and I looked at the pile. The top card was a five, so I looked in my hand and put down a couple of eights.

Sydonia

Fourth floor…

I descended the stairs, walking quickly for these withered bones. Two of my guards waited for me on the landing below, looking around. When I stepped onto the landing, they turned and said there was nothing to report, and then ran down the next flight of steps.

Third floor…

A slight discomfort ebbed its way into my thoughts. I had not seen Jaeques place anti-turn seals on some of the people upstairs, but I could tell they were there. And one of them had been taken downstairs, but that did not worry me.

Second floor…

What worried me was the two I had put in charge, although were fully capable of doing some damage, could not work effectively together when faced with a bigger problem than a rat.

A smell that troubled me even more rose in a cloud that did not pass. It smelled like burning ash mixed with blood. I made sure my guards were sitting on the end of the stairs before stepping down onto the next landing myself.

First floor…

The two guards proceeded to hurry down the stairs, but I had no stamina left to do so myself. I turned into the hallway and found the elevator. Pressing the down button and entering the door when it arrived, I rode the it down the rest of the way.

When the doors opened to the ground floor, I was not amused to see that it was in ruins. Broken glass littered the floor and chucks of body parts were strung from one end of the room to the other; small fires raged over the spilled concoction; and the two people that I had put in charge, Cyon and Kleptica, were gone.

Walking around, I found that the meat belonged to both the abominations that the two brought with them and the last group of people we had sent down. the doors to the building had not been opened, so I could assume that whomever did this was a short distance away.

"Ma'am Sydonia!" a guard called to me from a side hallway. With a look of disgust at this mess, I hurried to the guards, and saw they had captured the brat and found Cyon and Kleptica. In pieces.

I looked the girl over, and found it was one of the people that Jaeques had been with when we found him. She was short, child-like in appearance. She had black hair in two very different ponytails, one being short and the other being very long. She wore a large eyepatch over her left eye with a disc-like device over the socket, which acted like a lens mixed with her eye, following the other.

She was slim and flat-bodied, wearing a long black dress that looked like a witch's robe. Black rubber-soled boots with fake fur insulation and had a bit of metal attached to the front. I guess all she needed was a weapon and she would be ready for battle.

"What is your name?" I asked the girl. She didn't speak, biting her lip to keep her from talking. I looked at the guards and motioned to put her in a restraining hold, and they obeyed. "What is your name, girl?" I repeated. She still did not speak. "Apply pressure," I ordered.

They pulled her arms back and pushed down on her back, however, the pain did not register on her face and did nothing to please me. Deciding to wait it out, I turned to the bits of the lesser Apothecaries and separated them out. I took out a soulstone and placed it on Cyon's pieced self, and chanted a recovery spell. The stone melted and the liquid seeped into his body, revitalizing it.

The segments connected with each other, and soon he was back together. A few moments later, a flicker of his eyes and a moan indicated he was back.

"My apologizes, ma'am," Cyon said, sitting up. I reached out to help him back up, and he staggered to his feet. "We didn't expect the turning potion to have no effect on this person, or at least a form of reverse effect."

"Couldn't you see the seal on her back?" I asked him. "Even you should know it by now."

"There wasn't a seal. Go ahead, check." He walked over to the girl, and turned her around. I placed my hand on her back, but there was no seal. What kind of trick was this?

"Get her to spill her name, then go up to the top floor. I'll meet you there," I said irritated. I walked back to the elevator, ignoring Kleptica's remains and an abomination that had snuck on, and rode it back to the floor Jaeques and the prisoners were on.

Jaeques

"And that was the last card," Connor said, winning the game. Winston put his cards in the pile and I gathered and began shuffling them. Cress leaned on his shoulder, watching us play cards.

The tune of the radio in one of the rooms was carried throughout the floor. The people lazed around doing whatever, playing games, reading books, staring blankly at the wall. The guards allowed people to enter the rooms to sleep or use the restroom. Someone had the window open to air the place out, since it was building up.

I dealt the cards again and had just put the cards down when the elevator beeped. Almost everyone flinched and looked at the opening doors. Sydonia walked out with an abomination in tow, which made everyone scramble away. The guards went back on duty, collecting people from the rooms and sitting them in a line. I handed the cards back to Connor and stood to meet her.

"Jaeques, I wish to talk to you in private," she told me. Then, to a guard, "Lead them to the portal floor and sit them to the side. Another apothecary will be there soon. If he's there before me, tell him to come down here, using the stairs mind you. Dismissed."

The guard turned to the one next to him and repeated her message, then they spread it to the other guards. Sydonia gestured me to enter one of the rooms, probably about what happened downstairs that required the need to use abominations.

Closing the door behind me, I sat myself in a chair next to a table with the book I borrowed earlier left on it. Sydonia sat down in the chair opposite of this one. I looked at the room, which was wide open like a war room, but the table was too long for just that. It might have been a committee room, for the amount of chairs.

"I would like to first tell you that although it is kind of you to save these people's lives, it is an act of treason. You realize that, don't you?" she pointed out.

"Yeah, I know it is, but we could use them for hostages," I countered weakly.

"I doubt the entire force will stop just because we haven't killed some of them and turned them."

"Not the our enemies, but this world. We could do some real damage if we wanted to," I said, trying to work myself out of a hole.

"True… and besides, Warchief Hellscream would have heard about this by now and would want us to continue this since we have such a grip." She shifted into a more relaxing sitting position, before continuing. "Now, I know you are well aware that one of the people that we found you with, the black-haired young girl mind you, had gone down with one of the turning groups, and we found that she's immune to the Zombiefication potion, but she doesn't have a seal…"

I found myself cornered. "I didn't put a seal on the young girl because she didn't need one, but it seems to have worked against me. So, I guess I need to tell you why she didn't need one," I said. Sydonia nodded.

"You either tell me now, or tell the Dark Lady Sylvanas or the Head of the Royal Apothecary Society later as you're receiving punishment," she said, showing her royal flush.

"Heh, great."

Winston

I watched as Jaeques was pulled aside in a conference room by Sydonia. The guards she had talked to spread the order and stood us up. "We have received orders from Miss Sydonia, from the far end of the room, you are to be guided up to the disembarking room, where she has instructed you to move and stay to the right side. You are to move in two lines, and anyone who steps out of line the guards are free to move them back into line in any fashion they deem necessary." He paused to look if Sydonia or Jaeques was exiting, then looked back. "Far side, proceed."

The end of the line began moving forward, and I found myself behind Cress and in front of Connor, neither looking as bad as the girl who lent Jaeques her book in the other line, not too far ahead. Soon, Cress began moving, and after a few steps I started to walk behind her.

The trip to the Disembarking room was an exhausting unorganized march three or four flights upward, and several people had fallen behind, creating a third line on the already crammed stairway. However, once we got to the room on the ninth floor we were greeted to even worse surprise.

There in the left corner, as the entire floor was converted into one giant floor with a pillar for structure, was a troll-like being dancing with naught but a loincloth in a magic circle. Was this thing a pet to one of the warlocks?

We were moved to the cornered like asked, but once everyone was there, we migrated back into our smaller circles. A removable wall was placed between the group and the troll to the request of several of the people in the group, and as if to tease them a succubus showed up at the last moment with only a skirt on and flirted with us before the wall obstructed our view, which the crowd then asked to have the wall removed. The guards ignored us.

The girl who had given Jaeques her book moved next to a wall outlet and plugged in her laptop from the bag she wore. Connor pulled out his phone and began messing with it. I reached for my own when I remembered it had died. Feeling left out, Cress leaned on my shoulder, and I put my arm around her.

"How long before Weiß comes back?" she asked. The floor's elevator sounded, and another undead dressed as a scientist with blue hair and, guess who, Weiß stepped out. Cress jumped up to meet her before the guards stopped her and pulled her back. Weiß looked at her with a saddened face and motioned to back away, her hand bloody and full of holes. Cress got teary eyed and moved back and sat next to me.

"BR*S?" the girl with the computer said suddenly, fixing her glasses. Weiß looked at her confused, then followed the undead scientist to the other side of the room. "Don't tell me," she said, typing quickly away on her laptop. She had brown hair and wore simple wire-framed glasses. She had on a plain orange shirt and white plaid skirt. The only accessory she wore was a red flaming skull with wide sunglasses in her hair.

Her backpack was a one-strap bag with a picture of a college student and a wide-eyed man in a plain white shirt and blue jeans. The caption had something along the lines of Dead Book. "Yeah, that right," she whispered, looking back at Weiß.

The scientist instructed the guards to put up more walls to stop attracting stares from the group, so the group instead stared at the guards putting up the walls.

The idle chatter started up some time later, and when the guards finally put them back down, we were greeted to a line of fully equipped orcs, an undead cavalier, and the two warlocks. The imp and succubus were still here, but the imp had stopped dancing and the succubus had put on a skimpy shirt, much to the dismay of the men in the crowd.

"This is everyone?" the cavalier asked Sydonia, and everyone was rushing to put away their possessions and stand up.

"I believe so. Jaeques? Are there any others?" she passed the question on to him, and he shook is head.

"So when are we going?" the succubus asked, then jumped onto Jaeques' back.

"Soon. Off, Syevere, " he said, tapping her on the shoulder. Syevere ignored him.

"Don't tell me that you're cheating on your wife Jaeques," the cavalier asked.

"Jaeques has a wife?" Sydonia asked, looking playfully at the cavalier, then at Jaeques. "Who is she?"

"A fine Blood Elf woman, from what I've heard," the cavalier said.

"Lady Ashlian of Eversong," Jaeques grumbled.

"Lady Ashlian? You don't mean Champion Ashlian of Eversong? Oh, boy. When she hears you're cheating on her, you'll be in a deep rut," Sydonia teased.

"Any who…" the troll interrupted.

"Right. Thank you, Dagnik," Sydonia said, taking a deep breath. "Your men on the other side?"

"Yes, awaiting your return, ma'am," the cavalier said.

"Do you have my staff?" she asked the cavalier, who promptly swung around and opened his rucksack, pulling out a staff nearly twice the length of the bag itself.

"Madame Sydonia, can I have a word with you about my lab?" the scientist asked, moving to Sydonia with Weiß. "As you know, this hume smashed my lab to bits. If I may request a replacement…"

"Absolutely not. If you want revenge on this girl, then slip poison or find a way to turn her, but if you want a new lab, then seek Faranell. I mean, Master Apothecarian Faranell, excuse me, but right now we have more important matters at hand. So if you'd excuse me, I have to activate the port. And as for the girl, did you get her name like I asked, Cyon?"

"Vaiss, I believe," he said. "But the language might spell it differently."

"For now, put her with the rest. We'll deal with her soon," she told them, and Weiß ran to Cress' side, and wedged in between the two of us. She shot me a dark look before turning back to Cress.

With an exchange of smiles, Cress took her wounded hand and kissed it, and must of cast a healing spell because the holes closed up and the other scars disappeared. Weiß wiped off her hand to check, and sure enough, they were gone. With a giggle, Weiß hugged Cress and snuggled with her.

The girl with glasses tried to sneak to Weiß' side, but Weiß turned around suddenly. Have I mentioned anything about her eyepatch yet? The disc fluctuated like a focus on a camera looking her over. "Otaku," she said before turning back to snuggle with Cress some more.

"Don't call me that," the girl said.

"What is your name?" I asked.

"Otaku," Weiß said before the girl could answer.

"My name is Kris-" she tried to say.

"Otaku!" Weiß interrupted.

"Weiß, don't interrupt the girl," Cress asked her, and Weiß quieted.

"Like I was saying, my name is Kristina Tryfon, and yes, I'm an otaku," Kris said. And before she could say more, Sydonia moved Dagnik out of the circle, and began chanting her spell. Before long, the wall which she was facing began to shimmer and disappear, being replaced with an image of a lone hill at night.

"Oh, Jaeques," Syevere said strangely. "This power is making me feel so…"

"Off if you are going to continue this inappropriate behavior," he said, again trying to remove her from his back. She looked at him and pouted, then, much to his annoyance, wrapped her legs around him.

"Okay, form up your lines," the cavalier said. We again stood in two lines, but this time with less strictness. My party grew slightly, with the additions of Kris and Weiß. The order of our party in line was worth noting because it was based on the order of appearance in this story, going Cress, Weiß, me (Winston), Connor, and Kris.

I wonder how the romance will play out.

"Follow me and do not delay," he said, tapping one of the orcs on its shoulder. It fell into an attack stance and the others followed suit. The cavalier jumped, still on his horse through the portal and onto the grass, causing the image to waver. The front of the line hesitated, and the orcs took a step toward the group. Not waiting, the second in lines pushed the two through the portal and jumped themselves. The orcs stopped coming at us, but didn't drop their stance. The lines continued the march, but I didn't feel any safer.

Suddenly, the orcs resumed marching toward us, even though we didn't stop, and the rest of the group picked up the pace. Once we were through, I could hear the orcs laughing.

I looked around as a breezed blew over my skin, robbing it of warmth. We were in a small town, built like it was located in the medieval era. At least before a zeppelin flew by over head.

Where were we?

* * *

**Earlier in the story I had put a line that stated that one of my oc's had married the Lich King, I will fix that soon. **


	8. Chapter 6: Sir Blut

I entered the room, banging the bat against the door loudly, and I saw him turn with fright. "So," I began, lifting it over my shoulder, "how long until you continue my story?" He looked away thinking, before I kicked my foot up and placed it on his chair, between his legs. "How about now?" I suggested, waving the bat around his head.

"F-fine," he stuttered, trying to bat the bat away. I looked at his desk that was strewn with school work, drawings and stories that he had no trouble writing. A stack of papers filled his trash bin, probably from a story that had died recently.

I removed my foot and turned his chair around, and pushed him in, and made sure he wrote down the first line down before leaving, and brushed past a girl with green-hair walking in. The sentence went something like this…

Winston Charles and the Eastern Kingdoms

The guards herded us into a group, and although we were already standing somewhat in ranks of four or five, they tried to organize us further. It wasn't really a problem, and the guards tried to be as nice as possible, but obviously the gathering crowd wasn't human.

Undead swarmed to us like their plague, curious as to why there was a bunch of humans suddenly. I saw some orcs and trolls and… buffalo men, but mainly the crowd consisted of randomly armored zombies.

"Start marching," the cavalier commanded, and once again we started off. Jaeques hung back, talking to Syevere and Sydonia and syncing with the portal to take it over.

The cavalier dragged us through town, guards to either sides of us, but that didn't prevent the random undead walking around from running through the lines and taking out several of the people in line.

"Is everyone out here?" Jaeques asked, looking at Sydonia.

"That should be all of ours," she answered, both looking at the infinite seal, powered by the soul stone, that kept the portal open on the other side. Looking back at him, Sydonia asked him, "You figure a way for us to knock out the portal with all our men on this side?"

"Yep," he said, reaching into his bag a soldier brought to him. he brought out several sticks that were bound together and had a thin, highly flammable string leading out of each one, before being taped into one large thread. He pinched the end of the thread and snapped his fingers, casting an Immolation spell therefore catching the tip on fire.

"We might want to step back," Jaeques warned as he tossed the bundle of dynamite through the portal. It landed next to the crystal and the two warlocks hurried away from the portal. Within a minute, the fuse reached the sticks and a brief shockwave was felt on the undead side of the portal, before the image of the mostly empty room shimmered and faded.

"Where do you get that? I thought you were a Herb/Alch," Sydonia asked.

"My wife is Mining/Engineering worker, so I get a lot of toys to play with from her, although she usually refuses anything other than mana and health potions from me."

"She does need natural strength to keep her pride so high," Sydonia noted.

"That is true."

Cress leaned into me when one of them came our way, and I placed my arm around her protectively. Kris and Connor moved away and ducked, though the undead wasn't worried about who they got as opposed to how many. Weiß didn't even flinch even when one looked her in the eye before walking away discouraged.

With barely half the people left, we made it to the cavalier's destination: a prison. It couldn't be much worse than the partial hell we went through just walking in town. I looked in the cells as we passed and found that they were mostly empty, save for the one here and two there and others here and there. They were mostly orcs and elves, although there were other races like the orcs.

We were separated into groups of six to a cell, and my party managed to get all together in one cell. The extra person we managed to collect was the girl that had her cell phone taken from her. She scanned the group and the room collectively and sat by Connor, not interested with the rest of us. I sat down on the far wall and Cress sat on my lap. I wrapped my arms around her, and she put her arms on mine. Weiß sat next to us, before closing her eyes and slept.

Kris looked around, but like the cell phone girl, couldn't find what she was looking for and sat down and pulled out a book. Connor pulled out his cards and started to play with the girl next to him, and she played fairly well until she brought out her phone and began texting again, though she leaned in and took her time reading the texts.

"What's wrong with your phone?" I asked her.

"I can send and receive texts, but the characters are warped," she told me, handing the phone over to me. I looked and saw that the characters were replaced with symbols that barely looked like letters. The one she showed me had the word 'Zombie' on it, but what I first saw was 'Zebra'.

I leaned over to give the phone back when the cell door opened and the cavalier walked in. The girl turned toward him without taking the cell phone, and then started toward it. "I'm in need of a volunteer, someone who doesn't mind reading a scripture," he said, looking at us.

"Why us?" Connor challenged, but the man downplayed it.

"You guys were the first, but I guess you don't want to. Have a good night, then," he said, leaving.

"Hold it," another soldier told him, walking in. He looked at the cell phone girl and grabbed her outstretched arm and pulled her out. Connor reached for her, but the soldier threw a patch of dirt on him, temporarily stopping him. I started for her, but Cress strangely pushed down, forcing me to sit still.

"See? It isn't that difficult to choose from scum," the soldier told the cavalier, leaving with the struggling girl. The cavalier looked after them, before softly shutting the door.

"I'm sorry," he said, closing it. I stared at the door for a moment, then turned back to the cell phone in my hand. It blipped to its screensaver, so I closed and put it down.

Moments later, it chimed the arrival of another text, and I opened it. The person had sent a picture file, and curious to find out what it was, opened it. It was the picture of two girls on each other. The one on bottom had long orange hair, while the girl on top had two black ponytails, one shorter than the other.

It was the picture I had sent the guys at home, the one of Cress and Weiß in the hotel. Naturally…

"What's this?" Cress asked, looking at the image.

"I don't know," I said, playing dumb. I exited out of the picture and brought out my cell phone, before I remembered that mine was out of battery. I thought of a way to fix that. I shut down the girl's cell and switched the batteries. Waiting a moment, I turned on my phone, and the welcome screen flashed on. I saw the familiar neko wall paper and after a moment, a text came in, then another, and another. Soon, my cell was vibrating and beeping so much I dropped it.

Dropped it down Cress' skirt.

Angela Rosse (Cell Phone Girl)

"Here's the scripture you are to read," the zombie said, handing me a card with the message. I barely had time to look at it as the zombie warrior pushed me out of the prison. It closed the door quickly and locked it, leaving me out in the cold.

"Umm," I muttered, looking around. The people around town were entering their houses and shutting all of their window shutters and doors. Soon, the streets were deserted, giving me an ironic ghost town feel. I walked away from the prison before reading the scriptures, finding that they might not have been from the holy book.

[The Lord has deemed me unworthy of carrying on his destiny, and has offered me as a sacrifice to the Blood Knight, the one who bathes in red. In ofference of this sacrifice, he asks the Blood Knight not to strike those offering, and the Blood Knight has not a choice to disprove. That who is-]

I felt my body skip a beat, before standing straight and buckle afterwards. I fell to my knees and felt someone catch me. I looked at them and saw that it was a girl not much older than me.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Hannah Glodinstin, the Blood Knight you mentioned, though I'm not exactly one," she told me, laying me down.

"Why can't I move?"

"Because, I cut off the rest of your body, except from about three inches down from your diaphragm up," she answered.

"Why?" I asked, feeling my thoughts slow down.

"My Lord tells me to kill stuff so I do. I severed the rest of your body because you'll bleed more and thus make more of a mess for them to clean up."

"Will you tell me where I am? I was-"

"Shh, I know what happened to you. You were taken prisoner and brought to the town of Brill in the Tirisfal Glades on the north-western tip of the Eastern Kingdoms of Azeroth," Hannah told me.

"What?" I said, confused, before my senses failed. The last image of the gravel faded until it was replaced with a black darkness. After a moment, a new, vivid image of a field of flowers and whey surrounded me, and I could move again. My skin warmed up to the feeling of spring, which was strange, as we were in mid-November and I had died in a literal ghost town of sorts.

* * *

**It's spelt W-E-I-German Tsset, which could mean either White or To know (a fact).**

**Sorry for the extreme lateness. My excuses are in the Intro. Also in the Intro, if some people are reading some of my other stories, is Gumi, representing my lengthy Vocaloid fic that I'm taking a bit long writing an Arc-Ending to. I would blame other stuff, but that stuff has first priority anyway.**

**I was once told that my stories were too realistic they lack comedy. I have little intention to _include_ comedy, if at all, since I feel that a serious fiction is needed. Seriously, for nearly the entire archive for the other two categories I write for, Vocaloid and Kämpfer, there is absolutely little serious stuff, and what is serious is usually not because of the mystery or gore, but of the near explicit sexuality I dislike.**

**, make another damn category for those things. I want to find something other than that crap under the M section.**


	9. Filler: Christmas Part 2

Filler

Winston Charles and the Eastern Kingdom

Part 2

Dad

Everyone left while I was busy with paperwork. Out somewhere. Wesley out showing the Undead doctor Jaeques around town. The girls left sometime after cleaning the house (except the restrooms), and hadn't left a note on where they were going.

"Oh, well," I said to myself aloud. It was me alone here, with nothing really to do. What to do… Maybe they left the restrooms to me? Yeah, let's at least do that.

I lumbered into the storeroom where all the cleaning supplies were and was about to pick up a bottle of Soft Scrub when a knock on the doors sounded. Hesitantly picking the bottle up, I walked over to the door, and, placing the bottle on a side table near the door, opened said door.

"I have a message to Jaeques Mytklr," the man said, holding a slightly aged letter. He wore an old fashioned mailman outfit, and had a slight hunch, but looked otherwise in good form.

"I'm sorry but he's out. I'll give it to him when he gets back," I said. He handed over the letter and when I took hold of it, he kept his grip up. I looked at him with a surprised glance. I know this happens in the movies, but…

"Don't," The mailman said.

"I understand," I said. What kind of person did my son meet?

The man seemed to sulk back as I gently closed the door. No rushed movements, no suspicious actions and I might live.

I walked back into the living room and placed the letter on the table. I then waked back to get the bottle and, with a deep breath, picked up the phone.

Wesley

_Duhn-duhn-duhn-duhn-duhn-DAAAH!_

I tried my best to answer the phone while paying the stable keep for holding Brax.

"You guys have a great Christmas!" the cheerful man called as we exited the stables. Apparently Jaeques' demon horse emits heat waves to keep its body warm during chilly areas, and having it in the stables kept the heat around, so the other horses were kept warm and the guy didn't have to use the heater, and the horses were also happy. All that Brax complained about was the book we got Ash had got more attention than it.

"You too," I called back. _Duhn-duhn-_

"Hello," I greeted.

"Hey, is Jaeques with you?" my father asked, slightly hesitant.

"Yeah, he's right here. Did you need to ask him something?"

"Not really, just that he's got a letter waiting for him."

"Okay, I'll let him know. See you when we get home." And with that, I hung up. "You've received a letter via Undead Express, Jaeq."

"Right," he said, not skipping a beat.

Ashlian

The person following us on the roofs had gone off somewhere, probably thinking we weren't entertaining enough. However, there was another person I had to worry about dealing with.

"Ash, are you paying attention?" Mrs. Charles said, ready to sing the same rant over again.

"Yes. I wonder how your husband is doing?" I said, trying to get her off our case. Granted she acted like a mother when her son was around, but when he wasn't…

"Why on earth would you worry about my husband when we're talking about yours? Maybe you see the light and-"

I nearly grabbed her by the collar and made her take all her ranting about Jaeques instinctively when she mentioned that last bit, but Sai's training on human mannerisms kept me from doing so. I'd have to thank him for the meaningful torture he put some of us through. I composed myself and turned toward her.

"I'm sorry, but could you refrain from saying stuff like this? It's the holidays. And I'm a bit religious, so… yeah," I told her.

Somewhat frightened by my sudden action, Mrs. Charles relaxed. "No, no, sweetie. It's my fault, but it seems the elven and undead race are a bit different than we think," she said.

"No, actually. All the races I've known all behave in a slight variation of each other, but not as different or similar that it actually matters. So what I may think of an undead may not be as different as what they might think of the elves. But humans take the cake. You can't put a truly accurate label on the whole race without finding several exceptions. But that's something different."

"So the elves are mostly religious and as big as their egos?" she joked.

"More like magic-devout and, yeah, as big as their egos, but as we continue to live on, we end up with just another civilization that has only the difference in physical form, but for some people that's enough," I said, paraphrasing what Sai had said once.

Wait. _Damn you, Sai! You cynical bastard._ I cursed him in my head. With a fist gesture on the outside.

"Umm…" Mrs. Charles said, confused.

"Eh…" I said. Again, if it wasn't for Cress slipping, we'd be stuck there. Are you doing it on purpose?

Wesley

I don't know if I should thank Jaeques or strangle him.

I didn't have an idea on a gift for Cress yet when we passed by a liquor store. Jaeques stopped his horse and dropped to the ground, telling me to look after it for a moment, for he found a way for the one-gift to be a two-gift deal for me. He entered the store and before I knew it was back with three bottles, two cider and one he wouldn't tell me.

Before the man could mount the horse, I told him no. "If that's what you have in mind, no. I want her trust. Well, I want her. But getting her drunk and then… you know, would be considered rape."

"I wasn't thinking that," Jaeques said teasingly. "But I know that Ash is a happy drunk, and if you time it right…" He trailed off. I didn't take much to fill in the rest.

_You would be able to do both or have both of them doing each other or all three of us—_"No! Cut it out!" I said flustered at the thought. Jaeques gave a healthy laugh.

"So you're a gentlemen pervert," He joked.

"No! It's just wrong." I said, covering my face with the book.

"Yeah, yeah. Say what you will. You're just as normal as the rest of us," he said, finally getting on the horse. Once again, my load got heavier as I added the three bottles to it. "I think that covers it. Want to head back and hopefully wrap this stuff before the girls get back?"

"You also think they left?"

"Well, I didn't think they'd have a reason to stay except cleaning, which I guess they've either already done or will do later." And with that, we walked back to the house.

Opening the door, I noticed that the letter that Dad had mentioned was on the living room table. "We're home!" I called.

"In here!" Dad called back, from the downstairs somewhere. Instead of going there immediately, I led Jaeques to the family room and dropped off what we had and went downstairs.

Ashlian

Since we left, Cress had said very little, so we piled the gifts for the guys on her, and now me and Mrs. Cress were teasing her, trying to get her to talk. However, all she was doing was either not responding or blushing, all the while smiling.

So me and Mrs. Charles had decided to split up somewhere and see which one of us she would choose to follow.

"…" she said, still looking forward.

"We should have brought Winston with us. She might have spoke."

"Yeah, that might have been it. Her boyfriend should be able to make her talk."

"Quick question. How old is Winston?" Four way intersection coming up in ten, nine, eight…

"He's seventeen right now, since his birthday was last month," she said. Suddenly, I turned right and she turned left. I walked straight for a little bit then turned around. Cress, however, did not turn to follow either of us.

Nor could we even see her. I hastily walked back and looked down the other path that neither of us went down. Then back up the one we just went down. The streets were not empty, but there wasn't a large enough crowd to hide in.

"You see her?" I asked.

"No," Mrs. Charles responded. This was not good. Not good at all.

Wesley

"I'm going to be out for a little bit, so don't wait for me if Ash and them come back," Jaeques told us, after reading the letter.

"Why should we wait for your old bones?" I joked.

"Hey, I got a good few years still left in these bones. Take care now," the old man said, riding off on the hell horse.

"That's a nice horse the man got. Any chance he'd sell it?" Dad said, trying to follow along.

"Over his dead body, I guess." Walking back in, I noticed my dad was wearing a dusty apron. "That's a becoming look for a man."

"It runs in the family. Someday you'll be wearing one."

"Oh, ha ha."

Reentering our half cleaned restrooms, we hurried so that the girls didn't catch either of us doing some last minute cleaning. With a quick check of the clock, I knew for that moment it was about half-after five. Stores should be closing in about an hour and a half.

Ashlian

Walking and holding a conversation while trying to look calm was difficult when there's something you're worrying about. Quiet, we're trying our best.

"Let's assume that either she ran off and we thought she was there or she was there, but got distracted and entered a store at the last possible moment and we just missed her. In either case we'd still are in trouble." For some reason, it seemed more like she was trying to pin the blame on me, but that's really not worth focusing on.

"But lets just find her before it gets too dark," I said, looking around for the hundredth time. "Where the hell did you go?" I muttered.

Something tugged on my scarf and I looked down to find a young child looking up at me with innocent, sweet eyes. I couldn't care at the moment. "Excuse me, miss, but are you one of Santa's elves?" she said.

"Umm.." I said, barely audible. Santa?

A woman that could be her mother grabbed the girl's arm. "Sorry about this," said the woman, pulling the girl away. "Come on, sweetie."

"It's alright," I said, turning away. In less than a minute, I nearly ran into a young man that could be Winston's older brother. They looked so alike it was almost frightening

"My bad," he said and turned away, but I didn't want him to go. I grabbed his arm and he turned around with a different look in his eyes. They were like Sai's only…

"Yeah? What'cha want?" he asked. Confident, bitter, yet mature.

"What's your name?" I asked trying to match his tone. It really wasn't hard.

"Damien, why's it matter? Do ya want to take me on a date?"

"Damien, sounds like 'demon'. No reason. Just look familiar."

"Were you one of the girls that pleased me? Or one that will? You look in fine shape. Let's see how far you can go."

"Sorry, Already got me a man. A nice man too. Not that you'll ever compare."

He flinched. It was surprisingly easy to get what this guy was after. Suddenly he looked like he was going to do something, but then he composed himself.

"You know, you must be one of the city girls to talk so mighty. Maybe you'd like to demonstrate a real hit for me." So I did. I punched him but he dodged with a smile on his face. So I quickly twisted my body and knocked his feet off the ground. I was almost glad to watch him hit the cold gravel.

"Any more you'd like to see?"

"Yeah," He said, smiling as he rose from the ground. "You naked in bed with me." I punched him square in the chest, with enough power behind it to knock out a young dragon whelp. But he didn't drop. He just continued smiling. "You have much skill, padiwan. If you continue honing your skills you might make a great master."

"Ashlian!" Mrs. Charles called, running from a distance to my side.

"Get out of my sights," I told him. He chuckled, then moved on.

"Ash, who was that?" she said.

"Just some kid. Damien, I believed his name was."

"Damien? Let's get out of here. I found some one who might have seen Cress."

"Okay," I said, looking back. I saw him looking also, his eyes like smoldering amber. He turned and walked on, his body unnaturally solid. I shook my head and followed Mrs. Charles.

We found the person who spotted Cress, who happened to be [Surprise!] the woman whose child mistook me for a Santa elf. "I really sorry she bothered you," she said for the fourth time already. Her name was Reita Newman.

"So where did you see the girl again?" Mrs. Charles asked.

"She was moving northeast toward the bookstore through the alleys. If you hurry, you might catch up to her." Yeah, we gathered that.

"Thanks for the information, Miss Newman." And with that we were on our way. For a moment, I wondered if Sai's views were accurate or not.

We found the bookstore, but Cress wasn't here. Instead, we had found yet another girl looking for her, for a different reason.

"You guys know Cress?" a girl asked, who had strawberry-blonde hair and was complaining about there being no 'yaoi' in the store. "I haven't asked if she likes yaoi or yuri… but if you know where she's been, could you give her this for me?" she continued, handing a wrapped gift that was about the size of a book, then spun around and walked out of the store.

"Sure," I said. "Umm…"

Mrs. Charles tapped me on my shoulder. "I guess we should move on."

"Yeah," I responded.

We couldn't bear to see Winston's face when he saw that we lost Cress, so we continued to look for her. At about six, the stores began to close. We met up around the west border of town and finally found Cress. Who was still smiling and holding the neatly wrapped gifts and more with both arms.

"Cress, where on earth were you?" asked Mrs. Charles with a pained sigh.

"Going around getting some snacks for the party," Cress said happily.

"No, we mean why did you leave our company?" I clarified.

"Umm… Well, when you two split up, I wasn't paying attention and lost sight of you and wandered around for a bit hoping to find one of you, but…"

"Right. Well, now that we caught up with each other, lets head home. The boys will be waiting for us," I said, trying to not further showered with her deceptive smile.

* * *

**Yeah, Filler again. To be fairly honest, they're kind of spoilerish, and I actually don't care, because this is going to probably be retro'd as I'm not too worried about spoiling events that aren't going to happen. So yeah, fillers are filled with red herrings. Except some glaring stuff, like Winston's real name being Wesley and a mild shout out to one of my other stories. But for those paying attention, I think I played Cress' out of character moment really well.**


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